Candidates Take On The Issues, Sort Of

Good morning! With Americans all pretending to be fatigued by negative campaigning and the candidates promising not to engage in it even though we all know they will in the fall anyway, there's only one thing for Barack Obama and John McCain to fall back on: the issues. Meanwhile, Bob Barr is looking more and more spoilery and Obama has a plan to get votes where they will hurt John McCain the most. All that is after the jump!

Everyone On Immigration Obama and McCain have more in common than a mutual dislike of sketchy oil futures traders. They're also for an immigration policy that isn't predicated on the rounding up of millions of people and returning them by force to their home countries. They seem to think that's, like, impractical or something. So the anti-immigration community is trying force their hands by passing state laws and electing anti-immigration Congressional candidates.

Bob Barr, Spoiler And if that doesn't work, the anti-immigration community will have a savior in Bob Barr, the libertarian candidate, who, despite being a conservative Republican, is running as a Libertarian because the Republicans don't really want him anymore. He's looking to pick up voters who hate McCain and Obama alike, which has GOP strategists wringing their hands and Democratic strategists clapping theirs.

Obama And Voter Turnout The Obama camp has noticed that voter turnout in this country is a shame, even when the election is a hot one. They've also noticed that in a lot of so-called "red" states in 2004, voter turnout was particularly low among African-Americans. So they've launching a voter turnout initiative to convince more people to vote without trying to make it a race thing. That should be easy.

What's your take on the morning's news? Is negative campaigning inevitable? Is Bob Barr a real threat to McCain? Are you going to enter John McCain's car contest? Share all in the comments.